Ty Lawson (photo. Nike)

10. L.A. Lakers (11-8)
LW: 7, -3
Well, Kobe‘s finally cooled off, shooting only 42 percent and scoring 25 in his last five. Not coincidentally, the Lakers are 2-3 in those games. As long as Metta keeps destroying the World Peace with so many grenades, the Lakers will struggle to score enough. In those last five games, L.A. didn’t reached 100 once. Normally, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, but Bryant and Andrew Bynum (16.1 points, 12.7 rebounds a night) have both cooled off considerably recently. That’s not a good thing for a team that’ll have to fight all year for homecourt.

9. Orlando Magic (12-5)
LW: 10, +1
Quick. Name me a decent player from this roster outside of Superman and Ryan Anderson? You can’t. Zombie Jameer left his game in the lockout. Jason Richardson has been so useless that Big Baby might as well eat him. And yet, they’ve somehow gone 7-3 in their last 10. But if you look past their recent wins over the Lakers and Pacers, you’ll see they had beat just one team above .500 since Houston the night after Christmas. If Howard can somehow keep this team from hitting a wall at some point, it’ll be his biggest accomplishment yet.

8. Atlanta Hawks (13-6)
LW: 9, +1
I spoke with Joe Johnson recently, and when I asked him whether he thought the Hawks could beat Chicago and Miami this year, he was almost taken aback. He says they’ve already proven it. I’m not so sure about that, but give JJ the benefit of the doubt. He’s playing like he believes it. When I said recently I’d take him as an All-Star this year, I got killed. But lately, he’s scored 20-plus in six of his last seven games, and along with Josh Smith dropping career-high numbers, ATL is hanging around in the top half of the East without their big man.

7. San Antonio Spurs (12-7)
LW: 5, -2
They win so often, they’re starting to piss me off. I bet they could turn any player into a viable piece of a contender. Well… maybe not Blatche, but even Chris Duhon could come play here and we’d suddenly start talking about him as being an underrated point guard. It’s almost like Pop, TP and Duncan have this inner connection that allows them to always pick the perfect nights to have big games.

6. Philadelphia 76ers (12-6)
LW: 2, -4
The Sixers, despite some recent losses to New Jersey, Miami and Denver, are still rated No. 2 overall in Hollinger’s rankings, a big reason behind they are still winning by nearly 11 points a night, the largest scoring margin difference in the NBA. This has to be one of the craziest stats of all though: Philly has seven guys averaging double figures. I doubt that works in the playoffs, but it should allow them to win around 45 games this shortened season.

5. Indiana Pacers (12-5)
LW: 8, +3
Indiana used to get jokes about how they only drafted white guys. Well now, whatever plans they had following the blowup of their last championship contender have worked. They beat Chicago by five last night, and also took out the Lakers recently. They’ve had three or four “What’s My Name?” moments this year that were twice as good as the original song. But still, when your best player is either a shooter who can’t really shoot anymore (Danny Granger) or a center who’s too nice to hit you (Roy Hibbert), you’re not winning more than one playoff round.

4. Miami Heat (13-5)
LW: 6, +2
Once they get Dwyane Wade and his filthy crossover back, they’ll start dominating again. It’s only a matter of time. The offense is still tied for No. 1 in the NBA without Wade, but it’s the defense that has fallen off. They’re down to No. 8 with an efficiency of 97.4. Still, James is so far out in front of anyone else in PER that he’s the obvious choice for MVP so far.

3. Denver Nuggets (13-5)
LW: 13, +10
They’re back. After an early slumber, the Nuggets have won five in a row, including an OT win in Philly, which seems like it was probably as tough as killing Liam Neeson. The Nuggets have moved into a tie with the Heat for the best offense in the league (106.1 efficiency), and are so hard to play because they have six players all averaging at least 10.4 points a game. Danilo Gallinari is back in the fold with $42 million, and Ty Lawson has his sights set on a possible All-Star berth (15.7 points per game and 6.5 assists).

2. Chicago Bulls (16-4)
LW: 3, +1
A 16-3 team counting on a three from White Mamba in the closing seconds? It happened last night. But one loss doesn’t make a team, and the Bulls have been steamrolling people all year, sitting second in the league with a plus-10.2 scoring margin. Derrick Rose has the offense churning out big nights (105 offensive efficiency) and we all know the defense is more suffocating than a baby mama. They’ll be in the top five of this list all season.

1. Oklahoma City Thunder (15-3)
LW: 1, —
Playing better and more consistently than anyone right now. Russell has his money. KD has his. James Harden keeps growing his Abe Lincoln. What else do you want? Maybe a basket every now and then from the power players.

Did I get it right?

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